'glades Blueprint Will Get 2nd Look

September 24, 1999|By NEIL SANTANIELLO Staff Writer

Some of the most distinguished names in science will soon look over the shoulders of the architects of a $7.8 billion plan to restore the Everglades.

The National Academy of Sciences and Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt on Thursday announced the makeup of a 16-member scientific advisory panel that will examine the soundness of the science behind a controversial blueprint to pump new life into the famed marsh.

"This is a world-class group," said Stephen Humphrey, a University of Florida dean, former chairman of the state's Environmental Regulation Commission and one of the panel's three Florida appointees.

The new Committee on the Restoration of the Greater Everglades Ecosystem joins a welter of technical people -- including environmental regulators, water managers, planners and many Florida scientists -- who have already helped hammer out and assess an Army Corps of Engineers-led plan to restore the Everglades.

The Corps' 4,000-page result, now under examination in Congress, outlines steps to erase or retool drainage system features that harm the Everglades, and to find enough tap water for South Florida's population growth through 2050.

The new group of reviewers, all appointed by the Washington, D.C.-based science academy's National Research Council, are supposed to be distant enough from the politically charged business of repairing the Everglades -- and scientifically astute enough -- to offer unbiased expert commentary on the plan. They are supposed to provide an ongoing review of the Corps' work and point out potential flaws.

"We've got this fresh set of eyes, and I think that's terrific," said Shannon Estenoz, co-chair of the Everglades Coalition and a representative for the World Wildlife Fund.

Babbitt promised a review panel after the Sierra Club, Friends of the Everglades and other environmental groups last February called for peer review of the project and a group of eminent scientists attacked the 20-year state-federal restoration program as fundamentally flawed.

The group will be chaired by James Davidson, former vice president of UF's College of Agriculture. During its first year, members will convene three to five times in Florida "to conduct a broad scientific review" of the plan, Babbitt said in a statement.

Reviews will be done repeatedly so the restoration can make course corrections and not grind to a halt, the Interior Department said.

Humphrey, told of his appointment via e-mail, said the first meeting is proposed for mid-December.

"The committee will help ensure that the best possible science leads the way in our efforts to restore the Everglades," Babbitt said.

Also on the committee are Gordon Orians of the University of Washington; Jean Bahr of the University of Wisconsin; Larry Robinson at Florida A&M University; Patrick Brezonik of the University of Minnesota and others.

The committee cannot technically veto elements of the plan, which includes razing some of the walls that segment the Everglades, building reservoirs and pumping water far under the earth for storage.

The Corps touts the plan as rejuvenating for the marsh; but Stuart Pimm, an ecologist at Cornell University, argues it does not remove enough of the canals, dikes and other mechanisms that divided and strangled the Everglades in the first place.

"This committee clearly has the potential to deny it's a science-based restoration, which would be hugely damning," Pimm said.

But the panel could put its stamp of approval on the project, which he said "would be very powerful in silencing critics, including me."

Neil Santaniello can be reached at nsantaniello@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6625.